


Sketchy

by echoflowertea



Series: Open Requests [8]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Female Reader, Reader Is Not Frisk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 13:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7759777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoflowertea/pseuds/echoflowertea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You’ve finally decided to pursue your dream. Sans is just along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sketchy

**Author's Note:**

> **prompt** : O-Oh god. It's Saturday. *fumbles for script* omg what about a sans x artist reader. I took a few anatomy classes once and mostly all we drew were skeletons and bones. What if snas found the reader's sketchbook? Reaction is up to you

Before Sans met you, he didn’t think much of art.

Sure, he could appreciate the aesthetics of his brother’s creations. Papyrus was always talented at piecing things together with uncanny likeness. He once stacked enough peas at dinner to create a replica of the Eiffel Tower, a feat that Sans still wasn’t sure he fully understood. Whenever the kids at Toriel’s school ran up to him with their stickmen drawings shoved in their pudgy hands, he always made sure to give them a wink and a compliment. He saw the delicate skyline of the city when driving along the roads at night when he could stare across the winking lights, but he just gave it a short glance and moved on.

When you told him that you wanted to take drawing classes, he hadn’t understood the appeal. He mostly created blueprints and rough sketches for the inventions that he tinkered with in his workshop. Sure, they needed a steady hand and a basic understanding of dimensions in space, but anything else more? Why bother?

He headed off to supply store with you. Purchasing things for the vocational class you enrolled in during the summer. Paintbrushes, charcoal pencils, paper and watercolors. It was all a little excessive and just a bit overwhelming. But the way you lit up when you crossed the threshold was enough for him to second guess his initial judgment.

“Hey, Sans! Check this out!”

He waddled over to the aisle and peered at the obnoxious colors that seemed to scream at him from the shelves. This crafts shop was a little too eclectic for his tastes. In most cases he would’ve loved messing around with all the human trinkets that he couldn’t quite understand, but the fluorescent lighting in here and the smell of highly potent chemicals was enough to give him a headache.

“What do you think?”

You handed the sketchbook to him. He held it in his palm and turned it over, peering at the thick paper that would hold various poses and doodles. “looks good to me.”

“Good! I thought it might be a little childish because of the cover.” You took it back and he noted that it was your favorite color. It put a grin on his face. “Anyway, I think I’m set for a while. I’m kind of nervous. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.”

“why’d you wait?”

“Time, I guess. And so much discouragement. Art’s not really…well, people always say that it’s a waste. But I figured that I should pursue one of my passions regardless of what others say.” You paused for a minute. “Um, would you mind…I mean, if it’s okay…”

“hm?”

“Could you maybe…drop me off tomorrow?”

He chuckled. You were Too Damn Cute. “yeah, ok. i’ll pick you up, too.”

“Thanks!!! I know it’s kind of childish, but I’d be less nervous if you were there.”

He lingered in the aisle for a few long seconds while you walked toward the cash register. He could feel the embarrassment creep up on him, but he stuffed it down. You still managed to fluster him after all this time of being together.

You and Sans headed down to the seminar. A loose grip on your hand and his fingers twitching with every time you stole a glance at him. He’d never really seen himself as an affectionate person, but he was learning not to care so much about what other people thought. His friends thought that you two were an adorable couple, and most strangers didn’t even care, so it was really just himself that was making it more dramatic than it had to be.

The building itself looked normal enough, but heading inside was a different story. There were all kinds of strange and whimsical statues and sculptures around, crafted by the very students that roamed the halls. In the corner of the room there were signatures from various artists that had stopped by to give lectures and talks, with murals on every side that depicted lush landscapes of nature in all its wonder.

“Oh man, this is _so_ cool. I’m super excited.” You squeezed his hand tightly. “I guess…I should head inside.”

“you’ll do great, babe. see ya later.”

You chuckled. “Bye, Sans. I’ll tell you all about it!”

Sans busied himself with taking care of things around the house. Well, pretending to, but then failing at it purposefully so his brother ended up doing it instead. He had to conduct some more research in his lab, the newest addition to the house where he spent most of his time thanks to your encouragement. 

He was so entranced with crunching numbers that he nearly fell over when his alarm on his phone went off to alert him of your class ending soon.

He waited for you at the door. Checked to see if there were any familiar faces he recognized. Quite a few monsters filed out of the room, which he liked because he thought you could never have enough of them as friends. And he didn’t have to worry about anyone taking advantage of you, seeing as how he was just a liiiitle bit overprotective.

Hmm. He could’ve sworn that was the last person. Where were you?

Maybe you were still inside, chatting with the teacher? He poked his head in, peering around the corner, but the entire place was empty, save for the monster in the back of the room locking up the supplies. Glanced to the left. Right. Felt a frown coming on.

He texted you.

You responded back almost immediately.

Sans followed the trail that you left him. He really hadn’t expected you to be at the opposite side of the building, far removed from the rest of your classmates. You had the sketchbook thrown to the side, head buried in your hands, frustrated tears already littering the sidewalk.

“babe?”

“I’m so _awful_ at it,” you sobbed, not even bothering to give him a second to adjust. “I went into it kind of knowing that I’m a novice, but I think I’m actually the worst one in there. I sat down and everyone else was just bragging about all the different things they did to prepare, and we shared stories about our backgrounds in art, and I’m the only one that just up and decided to join. It’s supposed to be a novice class but people were completing the assignment in no time and it looked incredible. The teacher just kept hovering over me the entire time because I kept fucking it up and no matter what they said I just kept struggling!”

Hearing those noises from you and watching your face wrench up was enough to break him. He never wanted to see this happen to you. It physically hurt to see you so upset, and it didn’t help that he had no idea what to do or say to make it go away.

“hey, it’s ok.”

“I know it’s stupid. I’m just so pissed at myself. I’ve never had that one thing that I’ve been good at, you know? There’s nothing that stood out and pushed me to figure out what I could do for the rest of my life. And I have all of this passion but zero talent!”

Sans sighed and glanced at you, plopping down so you could lean on his shoulder. He felt as miserable as you looked.

“listen. some people out there might not need as much as you, but you said it yourself: you’re still a beginner. no sense in gettin’ bent out of shape. you gotta start out somewhere. stop comparin’ yourself to them.”

“I know. I know…” You trailed off and rubbed at your eyes. “I just. I wanted to come out of it smiling and feel like I finally found my calling. To sit there and show you something worth it. To thank you for supporting me in this…stupid dream.”

“it’s not stupid. more'n i’ve ever done.”

“Pfft, yeah right. You’re an incredible guy, Sans. You’ve contributed so much with your experiments. If I could stack up to half of your accomplishments…”

“hey, hold on there, babe. this ain’t a competition. you n’ me…we’re partners. and equals. so. don’t think you’ve got anything to prove, ok?”

You sighed wearily. “I…guess so. Sorry. I’m kind of a baby about this.”

“nah. s’good to see you passionate about somethin’. and we’ll get through this together.”

Over the next few weeks, you ended up looking forward to the classes instead of dreading them. Sans liked the shift in your attitude because he really couldn’t stand seeing you so upset. You spent all of your free time drawing in that sketchbook. Whenever the both of you had downtime and were just hanging out, enjoying each other’s company, he was happy to see you working diligently on your next piece. And although he had no idea what your actual progress was like in terms of the others in your class, he didn’t care. Seeing you perk up and strive toward your dream was enough for him.

“…and it’s actually very technical. You can create different strokes just by how you angle the pen. And depth can be made by light and shadows, which is super cool and honestly something I never would’ve thought of.”

Sans coughed and tried not to make his affection for you obvious. This was a public place, and Grillby would never let him live it down if he ended up making a fool of himself at the bar he frequented so often.

“so you gonna submit somethin’ for that gallery?”

“Yeah, I think so! I mean, a lot of the other people in my class have been working ridiculously hard on their pieces, so theirs are a lot more detailed. But my teacher told me that the one I want to put in is perfect and would fit well, so…” You fumbled with the straw in your cup, running your fingertips along the plastic and swirling it just hard enough that the ice clinked against the glass. “It really meant a lot that he gave me the okay. He’s super talented.”

Sans didn’t miss the gentleness to your voice. “uh. your…teacher. he a monster?”

“Yeah. I think that’s why we connect so well. I’ve never had a more attentive instructor. And he’s got great stories about living Underground in the capitol.”

He faltered. Monsters who took residence up there were pretty well-respected and had history to their names. Ancestors that fought in the war. Loyalists to the kingdom. It wasn’t quite as much of a rift between them and the others that he grew up around, but enough that he felt a little suspicious at this mysterious man’s intentions.

“he’s good at what he does then, huh?”

“Mmhm! He’s the one that encouraged me to doodle in my notebook every day. That and he always has a really great list of activities for us to do in class to expand our skillset. Like, the other day, he posed as a live model so we could work on movement. I would be _so_ embarrassed having to stand in front of the class and have them ogle me for like, an hour, but he seemed to really enjoy it.”

Sans didn’t feel so hot, now. His relaxed demeanor had faded and he felt an unfamiliar spark where his gut should’ve been. He pushed his plate away and rested his hand on his chin.

“maybe we should…get the check?”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“not really. might’ve just eaten too fast.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

He sat in his room brooding after you left. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust you. It was just…well, he had an been as supportive as he could’ve during this whole process. But he was never there to see your progress. The guy you’d been training with – your teacher – was someone that inspired you and made you feel comfortable to continue despite all of your initial hangups. And he was there during a very sensitive and critical time for you. 

Sans had other things going on, and he wasn’t interested enough to take the class with you, so it was a little painful to see that someone could so easily fill that position in being your rock when you needed them. And he knew he was being a little…overdramatic, and thinking too much about this, but it still made him feel like he was pitted against this stranger.

He flopped backwards onto his bed to ruminate more when something hit the base of his skull.

What the hell. He sat up and turned, seeing the ringed spine of your sketchbook staring back at him. Huh. You must’ve tossed it in here before the both of you left to eat and forgot to bring it with you. You were in such a rush to get back to work that it probably hadn’t crossed your mind.

He gazed at it for a long while. It wasn’t exactly…an invasion of privacy, was it? It was just a sketchbook. You’d shown things to him before when you made something silly that was guaranteed to get a laugh out of him.

He opened it up and peered inside.

The entire page was filled with bones. As in, detailed, completely lifelike bones. Metacarpals and vertebrae, fibulas and femurs. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Not when there were scattered parts crafted with such care and attention. Why were you trying to figure out how to draw this? Especially when…in the very corner… there was a full-bodied, mysterious nude figure whose image was burned into his eyesockets.

Who _was_ that? There was no way he could tell, not when it was a view of their back. But this was…different than the others. It was much more intimate. A faceless figure that was splayed out for everyone to see. Why was this…in your sketchbook? Why did it look so realistic, like you had a fine idea of what you were doing? As if you had a reference to glance at to capture all of the dips and divots, the subtle break in each joint.

He gaped at it for another thirty seconds before slamming it shut.

A thousand thoughts ran through his mind, but none of them were pleasant. In fact, they just kept getting worse the longer the day ran. At dinner he barely touched his food, which upset Papyrus and caused a bit of banter between them. He had to make it up to his brother by grabbing them some dessert from Muffet’s down the way, which he definitely paid for.

He’d tucked the sketchbook away so he wasn’t tempted to rifle through it again. He tossed and turned in bed, the heavy thoughts weighing him down even more than before.

You said your teacher was a monster. He posed for life drawings. What if…the guy was a skeleton? He furrowed his browbone and buried his face in the pillow, his grip on the covers tightening. He could’ve been…posing for you. In the middle of class. Completely fucking…naked. And using his body to give you confidence about your drawing. Maybe he knew that you and Sans were together and thought you had a type. Maybe he just liked giving human girls hope.

He thumbed through his phone and re-read past messages from earlier. If that was the case, did he even have a right to be upset with you? If your teacher was baring himself to you and you were drinking it all in, that wasn’t considered…cheating, really. It was professional. It was just…one other very symmetrical skeleton monster baring himself in all his glory to the woman he loved, that was all.

He woke up even before his alarm went off to get ready to fulfill his promise. Shoving his hands in the pockets of the jacket you bought him for his birthday. Sneering at his reflection as he walked past it, back hunched, wishing with all of his might that he’d never wormed his way into your business.

On the walk he tried to figure out what he wanted to say to you. He figured he should at least confront you about everything he was feeling. You’d always encouraged him to be honest because he spent so much of his life stifling his true feelings down just to make sure he didn’t worry anyone. But if something bothered him this much, he had to go through with it.

He paused when he saw the greeter outside the door. One of the other students he’d seen you talking with. They were handing out pamphlets. He grabbed one to tuck away for later, not willing to admit that he was far more sentimental about things like this than he should’ve been.

“Sans!”

His mood lifted when he heard his name on your lips. You looked so excited and practically ran into his arms as soon as you could make your way through the crowd.

“hey, babe. lookin’ good.”

You smiled proudly. “I’m so glad you took time off for this. It’s gonna blow your mind, I promise!”

You tried to take his hand to drag him off, but he resisted. “before we go in…can we, uh, talk?”

“Oh. It…can’t wait?”

He searched your expression and his SOUL stammered. “y’know what? yeah. it can. show me what you got.”

You were happy to introduce him to the rest of your classmates. Sans felt at ease knowing that the majority of them had friends and family here. It made him feel…like he really was included in something bigger than himself. A lot of the stuff on the walls was nice, but he was scanning for your telltale style. Little things he’d seen in common amongst all the little things you left around the house and in crumpled pieces you shoved in the trash.

Sans braced himself for disappointment. He knew what he was going to find, but it didn’t make it any easier. You’d spent so much time recently on perfecting the bones of the body that your muse must’ve been your instructor. He just wanted to get this over with before he embarrassed himself any further.

“Um, wait. Okay. Close your eyes.”

“promise you won’t do anythin’ weird?”

“I promise. Just…a little more to the left.” You steadied him and pulled away, Sans missing the warmth of your skin on his. “There. On the count of three. One…”

He was going to be sick.

“Two…”

Why didn’t he just make an excuse not to be here?

“Three.”

His eyes snapped open.

Silence engulfed the both of you for a long minute. Sixty agonizing seconds. You searched his face for any change, but received nothing but the blank stare he gave to everyone when he was put up against something he couldn’t quite comprehend.

“Sans?”

His shoulders shook.

“Do you…not like it?”

He turned his face toward you and his grin was back full force. Laughter escaping from his chest as he looked from you to the piece and back again.

“this is me.”

“Yeah, it’s you.” You stepped in front of it triumphantly. “Our prompt was ‘our biggest inspiration’. And that’s what you are to me. Despite me feeling sorry for myself when I first started, you stuck by me. You…helped me jump into this whole thing and look what I’ve got to show for it!”

Sans drank it in. It was a portrait. Of him. Standing on the edge of his favorite lookout spot, glittering stars hanging above him against a dark blanket of sky. Everything about it was ethereal. From the dusky clouds that traveled above him to the blades of lush grass that swayed with a breeze he could see but not feel. He had his telescope perched on a stand and his grin spoke volumes about what he’d seen just beyond the glass, no doubt relishing the fact that he was one step closer to the wonders of the unknown.

“I wanted to thank you. For…dealing with me and this…dream of mine. I thought I could maybe immortalize my feelings and put them here, on display, so everyone knows how wonderful you are.”

He reached for your hand and squeezed it tight, lacing his fingers with yours. The moonlight on his bones on the mural was enough that he could feel its soothing glow, his magic cool against your skin as he immersed himself in the painting.

“so this is why you were drawin’ all those bones?”

“Yea—hey. Wait a second. I never told you about that. This was supposed to be a secret!”

“i kind of stumbled on your book and, uh. took a look. inside. just one page, and i saw all of the doodles you had in there about…skeletons.”

“Pfft, okay? Why do you look so scandalized?”

“thought maybe your teacher was your muse and you’d been doing nude portraits of him.”

You laughed so hard that your knees almost gave out. Several of the other people in the gallery eyed you both distastefully, but Sans was just relieved you weren’t furious with him.

“Oh my GOD. Is that what you wanted to talk about tonight?”

“yeah…” He trailed off. “thought you were…well, it ain’t cheating, but…”

“Sans. Seriously? That over there is my teacher.” You thumbed to the Moldbygg in the center of the room that swayed in greeting at everyone that walked by. “That is who you’ve been jealous over.”

He let out a small noise of protest. “wasn’t…jealous. and i thought you said he posed nude?”

“No?” You blinked. “I just said he posed as a model. And he has. Which is just…really brave considering he’s one of the…less…anthropomorphic of your species? I would’ve been mortified because people were asking such invasive questions.”

Sans wiped the sweat from his temple. “damn. i’m…an asshole.”

“No, you’re just…hilarious.” You kissed him on his mouth unexpectedly, savoring the way he held you close despite the surprise. “I think I’ve already got my type figured out.”

“heh. same here.” He accepted the gesture when you bent down to rest your forehead on his. “so, how much longer is this up here?”

“A couple weeks, I think.”

“good. we’re puttin’ it up in the living room. framed. with an open house for everyone else to come see.”

“And we charge admission.”

“damn. i knew i fell in love with the right girl. yep. ten bucks for entry. got any other pieces in the works?”

You chuckled and leaned into him, the both of you ignoring the rest of the chaos around you and enjoying each other’s company. “I think I can cook something else up. With the right motivation.”

**Author's Note:**

> **comments make my day!**
> 
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> 
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